Bula Quo!

5 July, 2013 | By Mark Adams, chief film critic

Dir: Stuart St. Paul. UK. 2013. 105mins

A grinning, gurning and often graceless comedy-crime romp set against the most beautiful of Fijian backdrops, despite the fact that it is clearly a vanity project of much amusement to everyone involved in making, there is general sense of good-natured, old-fashioned, end-of-the-pier style fun to Bula Quo!

By its very nature, Bula Quo! Is a film of limited appeal – mainly to completist fans of the band and lovers of cringingly so-so British cinema – but at least it is relatively un-cynical and everyone seems to be having a great time.

Rock band Status Quo front-men Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt are engagingly good-natured – and their innate friendship shows through – as the real-life rockers who accidentally witness a nasty crime and find themselves in standard crime-thriller peril.

As directed by veteran stunt co-ordinator turned director Stuart St Paul it is a super-colourful romp in the sun, that sees the band stop off in Fiji for a series of gigs. But those likely lads Rossi and Parfitt slip the attention of their minder (Craig Fairbrass) and head off for a stroll by the water.

Unfortunately for them, at the docks they happen to accidentally witness an illegal Russian Roulette operation (ran by Jon Lovitz) which they film on their phones. Cue a series of chases over land and sea as they seek to escape gun-wielding baddies and also get to have a bit of good-natured banter and general fun in the sun.

By its very nature, Bula Quo! Is a film of limited appeal – mainly to completist fans of the band and lovers of cringingly so-so British cinema – but at least it is relatively un-cynical and everyone seems to be having a great time. The laughs are of the pratfall kind, and despite everything (including no ability to act) Rossi and Parfitt are an engaging enough double-act. For the record, the Fijian interjection of ‘Bula’ is ‘hello’.

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